Thursday, November 27, 2008

The English Cricket Board's request for a postponement of the final 2 India vs England ODIs because of the terror strikes in Mumbai has been accepted by the BCCI. In all likelihood, the final 2 One Dayers would be called off, though a call on the 2 test series will be taken later.

The 2nd India-England Test Match is in fact scheduled for Mumbai, and the Taj Mahal Hotel, the scene of the crime might have been the hosts for the two cricket teams.

The fidayeen strikes have also jeopardised the holding of the Champions Twenty20 League which again had Mumbai as one of its venues. Rickey Ponting, the Australia captain and Shane Warne have both already called for the Champions T20 League to be shifted out of India.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The war of words never seems to end. Now it's Australia captain Rickey Ponting lashing out at Sunil Gavaskar.

"Sunny was no angel in his playing days", commented Ponting referring to an incident in the 1981 India vs Australia Test, when Gavaskar walked out protesting an lbw decision.

While Ponting pointed out Gavaskar in particular, the Aussie captain also lashed out at the 'hypocrisy' of many former cricket legends who he thinks expect current cricketers to behave in a certain way, while their own behaviour and talk during their playing days was less than exemplary.

Ponting was worried that over the last 10 years a certain image was getting formed of the Australian cricketers - that they walked onto the field with an intention of having a few words with the opposition.

He is worried alright, but instead of lashing out at Gavaskar, Ponting would do better to rein in himself and his colleagues if he wants this image to change. Only yesterday, Daniel Vettori just ahead of the Australia - New Zealand series called Ponting the most aggressive person on the cricket field who was always 'spoiling for a fight'. Vettori is surely no former cricketer, Mr. Ponting.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Even as India was engaged in the last test against Australia in Nagpur, England began their 2008 Test and One-Day tour to India with a win against a Mumbai side led by spinner Nilesh Kulkarni. Flintoff top scored for the visitors with a less than a ball 100. Owais Shah and Ian Bell contributed with half-centuries as England, batting first, piled up a score of 297. James Anderson took 3 wickets as Mumbai were restricted to 175 off their quota of 50 overs to hand England a 122 runs victory.

Performances in tour games don't mean much, as Krejza showed with a 12 wickets haul in his debut cricket test after having been overlooked for the first 3 tests after the mauling he received at then hands of lesser batsmen, in a tour game. But a win is a win, and a century is a century - and England, and Flintoff would be pleased with the way they have begun their India campaign.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

At least one man in India will not be too displeased with the one Test ban that has come Gambhir's way. After having been selected to replace Gautam Gambhir in the India Team for the 4th Test against Australia, Vijay has now made it to the just announced India Team for the first 3 one day internationals against England.

Sachin Tendulkar has been rested for the first 3 ODIs on request while Badrinath, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel - who were a part of the India Team for the ODI series against Sri Lanka have not found a place in the new squad. Ishant Sharma returns to the team and alongwith Zaheer Khan, R P Singh and Munaf Patel will form a formidable pace attack to choose from. T20 star Yusuf Pathan is in too.

The Full Team for the first 3 matches of the India vs England One Day Series 2008:

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Just a few days after the current 4 Test India-Australia series comes to a close, India begin another home series - against England. The series comprises a bit too much of one day cricket - 7 ODIs in all , while the number of tests is sadly only two.

Find below the full schedule of the India Vs England ODI series with match dates, venues and timings at which you can start watching live cricket streaming or the live telecast on TV. The touring England side will play a couple of practise matches against Mumbai - the venue for both matches is the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The matches are on the 9th and 11th November.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

He is retired now, and doesn't know what to do when not playing cricket. Or, it is a desperate marketing strategy for his autobiography? Whatever be the case, the former Australian keeper who was often described as the 'greatest current all-rounder' now seems to be fast losing it.

True Colours : My Life already seems to be more about the lives of other cricketers rather than Gilchrist's own. First it was his bit about Tendulkar's lack of honesty during the famed Sydney Trial, now it is about Muralitharan's bowling action. Gilly believes that Murali has a suspect action, and the ICC bent the rules of cricket to accommodate the Lankan. His part about ICC bending the rules of the game to accommodate is a fair accusation, but if Gilly really had the balls to be honest, he should not have singled out Muralitharan and stopped there, but come out with the whole scary truth.

As Gilchrist rightly points out, the ICC did change the rules - the definition of what constitutes a 'legal delivery' was indeed modified. But the redefinition was not to accommodate Muralitharan - it was to ensure that two of Gilchrist's own team-mates, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie amongst many other leading bowlers of the world were not outlawed alongwith Murali!

Following Hair's no-balling Muralitharan for throwing, the ICC initiated a study of the bowling actions of bowlers across the world. This study revealed some shocking statistics - as per the existing laws of cricket, more than 90 percent of bowlers were chucking, not bowling! Imagine a scenario where the ICC had to ban McGrath, Pollock, Gillespie and Brett Lee - the world of cricket would have gone topsy turvy, at least temporarily international cricket would have come to a grinding halt. That's what hurried the ICC into amending the definition of a valid bowling action. Both McGrath and Lee were going beyond the ten degrees limit, and on a regular basis - it was not even a case where only the doosra was a problem.

Surely Gilly knows about this - then why this distortion of truth?

Gilchrist calls that change of rule by the ICC to accommodate Murali 'horse-crap'. The truth is that it is he who is trying to bull-shit his way to a best-seller. I also fear that he might actually succeed.

Are you a cricket lover stuck in a place with no live telecast of the cricket on TV? If so, then you may be searching for information and links for watching Live Cricket Streaming Online on the internet, maybe for free! The India-England One-Day Series starts on 14th November 2008 with the 1st ODI match in Rajkot, hardly a few days after the fourth Test between India and Australia ends in Nagpur.

Gautam Gambhir who was handed out a one test ban for 'making physical contact' with Shane Watson in the previous test at Delhi had appealed against the ban, and the BCCI was expecting that either the appeal would be upheld or at least the decision would be delayed enough to allow Gambhir to participate in the 4th test against Australia at Nagpur. But unfortunately, the ICC match commissioner acted quick and the decision has been swift and Gambhir's appeal has been rejected.

Latest reports suggest that the BCCI has refused to accept the rejection of the appeal against Gambhir and will be protesting against it. But they are left with little time, and it will be interesting to see if the BCCI can engage in some quick back-room diplomacy and manage to get Gambhir in, in time.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

A 5 wicket haul for part time spinner Virender Sehwag on a Kotla track may just hasten a decision which wasn't far off even otherwise. While Sehwag's figures at tea on day 4 of the 3rd India - Australia test read 40-9-104-5, Kumble had just one wicket to show in what is his favourite hunting ground. Add to that his current injury problems, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni pressing hard to displace him from the top job, and Anil Kumble may not be left with much choice.

Compounding problems further would be the speed with which the BCCI has obtained a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) Certificate to administer a steroid on Harbhajan Singh that could give the offie significant relief and allow him to play the Nagpur Test. Thankfully for Kumble, the star of the previous test Amit Mishra has failed as much as him else the public and media pressure would have been in the extreme.

There would be only one question in Kumble's mind - should he announce his retirement immediately after the Delhi Test or wait for Nagpur and hopefully retire on a winning note. Only recently had he remarked about "bowing out on his own terms" and I suspect Nagpur may be his last chance to do that.

Imagine Mrs Dhoni sitting on IPL chief Lalit Modi's lap! Thankfully Mrs Dhoni is still an imaginary being, and Modi is not Stanford. Else you could be guaranteed a milion non-stop videos of that on India TV and the many other idiotic news channels. But the T20 for 20 is real and so is Mrs Matt Prior, and Allen Stanford did manage to get the wife of the English wicket keeper on his lap, during a T20 for 20 match in Antigua.

Yes, that indeed is the Texan Billionaire Allen Stanford with Matt Prior's wife on his lap and surrounded by the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of the English cricketers who are in Antigua for the T20 for 20 million $ Cricket Super Series. Imagine the shock of Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen and other English cricketers when they saw this images being flashed live on the screen in the ground.

Stanford has since personally apologised to the English players, saying he was unaware they were the English cricketers' WAGs. "The girl who was stood up plopped down on my knee. I did not put her on my knee or sit here on my lap, she just plopped down. It was strictly an innocent thing. I apologised to Matt and to Kevin (Pietersen, the England captain)," he said.

" There are a whole nest of issues around this appointment, and you have to wonder how Lalit Modi will respond as well. " - Sean Morris, Chief Executive of the Professional Cricketers' Action (PCA), reacting to the appointment of Mushtaq Ahmed as England's spin bowling coach.

About Me

The author, a Management Consultant passed out of MICA in 2001. He did his graduation from the College of Business Studies, Delhi University. He was earlier employed with IMS as Zonal Marketing Manager and now is a freelance Online Marketing Consultant. You may write to him at amitbajaj100@hotmail.com